“We are artisanal winemakers, artisans of taste and the art of French living. To visit and discover our dry white, red, rosés and sparkling wines is to taste Chenin Blanc from Savennières and Cabernet Franc from Anjou, feel under your feet the slopes of our slate hillsides warmed by the sun of Anjou, be dazzled by the light of the Loire, inhale the fragrances of old roses, hear the ocean breeze rustling in the foliage of the park’s old trees, experience a beautiful page of history in a traditional Anjou mansion.”

I have met Evelyne a couple of times, a sparkling, charming and friendly lady who is passionate about the history and biology of the Chenin Blanc grape.

Her tasting room is managed by Adeline, another enthusiast of Chenin Blanc who is a most patient as well as knowledgeable hostess, who has regularly taken us through a tasting of wines they make from each parcel of land, all quite different, and yet all made from the same grape and by the same winemaker with the same equipment! This is the magic of terroir, that small French word but with a gargantuan meaning and influence. Soil, water retention, slope, aspect, hours of sunshine, mean temperature, rainfall, …… all contributing to that magical influence on the growth of a grape and the resulting wine. Stand in a climat (field) here in Savennieres and look at the vines, then move maybe 50 metres in one direction, see the identical vines, but be aware that the wine produced from them will be very different from those viewed 50 metres away. Terroir, such an influence that can never be seen on such a scale of the thousands and thousands of acres of sprawling vineyards of California, Chile, Argentina …. it’s not their fault, it’s the massive variation in terroir in the Loire, Burgundy, Rhône……. in fact the whole of France.

So, what I’m leading up to here is the fun, then the sheer pleasure of tasting 4 different wines of the same grape (Chenin Blanc), made by the same winemaker (Domaine du Closel) but each made from grapes from different climats/fields. There really is a difference in each wines acidity, minerality, fruitiness, structure and balance. The price of these 4 shown below ranges from €14 to €39 mostly because of the ageing potential and the wines ability to develop into something much more rare. Great fun too with guests in your home, giving them all four to taste and seeing if they can work out the price/value of each, but sadly not this month as it’s still No Wine November!

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